31 March - 1 April 2016

Saïd Business School, Oxford, UK

An introduction to ergonomics for mobile UX

Neil Turner Freelance

Session type: TutorialSession duration: 45 minutes

About this Tutorial

The UK, like the USA and much of World is now a ‘smartphone society’. Smartphones have overtaken laptops as the most popular device for getting online and are transforming the way we live our lives.

Smartphones have changed the way that we communicate with one another, they’ve changed the way that we access products and services and they’ve changed the way that we physically interact with computers (yes, that little smartphone in your pocket is still a computer). We no longer use a cumbersome keyboard and a mouse to tell a computer what we want it to do, no that’s too impersonal these days. Now we tap our smartphones, we press them, we pinch them, we even gently stroke them and whisper sweet nothings in to their ear.

This increasingly physical bond with our beloved mobile machines is a challenge because it throws another consideration in to the UX melting pot – Ergonomics. It forces us to think about the physical aspects of a design. We now need to think about how users hold their devices. How they physically interact with the UI. How far they can reach and even how big their fingers and thumbs are.

In this practical and insightful tutorial you will not only learn why it’s so important to consider the ergonomics of a design, but how you can design mobile and tablet experiences with ergonomics in mind. You’ll learn how we hold our devices, what our physical constraints are and how you can use this information to design digital experiences that not only look great, but feel great as well.

About the Speaker

A former techy turned UX Jedi, Neil is an experienced UX designer with an MSc in HCI (Human-computer interaction) with Ergonomics.

He’s previously worked for a market leading travel website, a UX consultancy, a digital agency and top 10 UK e-commerce website.

When he’s not trying to make the world a slightly nicer place Neil likes to ride his bike, write articles for his UX blog (www.uxforthemasses.com) and fill his Kindle with books that he never seems to actually get around to reading.

Session Types

Need help planning which sessions to attend? We've provided a breakdown of our various session types below.

Case Study/Experience Report

A presentation and discussion of real-life (not theoretical) experiences of the application (or mis-application) of service design techniques. Case studies and experience reports include some discussion of lessons learned and an indication of how novel the work is.

Hands-On

Participants learn a new approach, tool or technology through using it to solve one or more practical exercises. Any software/hardware requirements are disclosed in the session description.

Tutorial

A session focused around some specific tool, technique or issue. Primarily led by the speaker, tutorials usually include some elements of interactivity or individual / group exercise.

Workshop

An in-depth working session on a specific topic. May include paper presentations.